294 HOLMES: PRE- HISTORIC REMAINS OF ROMBALDS MOOR. 
case of Rombalds Moor, (which is one of the most favourable to 
Mr. Ferguson) to wit. Suppose the Roman Olicana was destroyed 
in 500 A.D., and that all the following British and Scandinavian 
settlements and influence were wholly uprooted by the depopulation 
of Yorkshire, by William, 1068-9. What follows ? We had cer- 
tainly a Saxon (Scandinavian) Church at Ilkley before this depopu- 
lation. Witness the, at least, four crosses, three still in the church- 
yard. But how with these (and the Romans were christianized after 
Constantino, if not before) could they have been a pagan people, so 
numerous and so long resident as to dig the graves on the common 
of Baildon, and erect stone circles, tumuli and the score of rude 
monuments upon the moor (then not of Rombald ?) How could these 
pagans be contemporary and flourish in time parallel with the art of the 
Ilkley crosses, leaving neither legend nor record of any kind of their 
existence ? Of all hypotheses of antiquity we submit Ferguson's 
to be the most incredible, and hence we accept his alternative and 
refer the graves, tumuli, stone circles and rude cup and ring marks of 
Ilkley to a barbarian pagan people, and to a very remote period to 
commence with, coming down possibly to the Roman invasion, and 
ceasing everywhere with the growth of power and the introduction 
of Christianity. The rude stone monuments of Peru, of the Pacific 
Island of Tonga, Victoria and other parts of Australasia are beyond 
our limit to account for. 
Having very crudely and imperfectly glanced at what those 
markings are not, we may similarly glance at what they are. They 
may be defined as artificial cuttings and figures upon rocks or ancient 
stone monuments, always of a rustic period. The simplest are hol- 
low, of from two to three inches in diameter to six or more, and 
from one inch to six or eight deep, proportionate to size. They are 
chiefly of the small size, and are marked in lines upon any part of 
the stone on the side, ridge, or top without any evident order. 
Secondly, we have these hollows in cups, often surrounded by a ring, 
whole or broken, or there may be two, three, and even as many as 
seven rings round a circular hollow. Generally the rings are fairly 
circular; but some are more or less oval, serpentine, or spiral, and 
even tending to the square. Thirdly, from one cup-and-ring — hence 
